Lan Yan wanted to scold him “pervert,” but she couldn’t utter a single word.
Liang Jingchuan leaned down to kiss her. She turned her head to dodge, but he deliberately used that wet hand to seize her chin. When she reached out to push him, he grabbed her hand and pressed it tightly against his chest.
His tongue tip breached her teeth and stirred inside her mouth. She realized she didn’t reject this challenge to her germaphobia, this “sharing.” Instead, the impurity gave rise to a rebellious thrill.
She gave up resisting. Liang Jingchuan no longer restrained her head, but he didn’t release the hand on his chest. Instead, he lightly tugged it downward.
Lan Yan’s heart jolted in shock. Her fingers curled, but she didn’t pull away.
Past the obstacle, he continued guiding her, prying apart her curled fingers and making her grip it.
Liang Jingchuan looked up at her.
Under the dim yellow light, Lan Yan’s skin flushed red from her collarbone to her cheeks. Her eyelashes trembled lightly as if coated in mist, and faint moisture shimmered in her eyes.
Her expression looked as if she’d been thoroughly scalded.
Liang Jingchuan had originally thought her hand would be his release. In reality, it marked the further collapse of his reason.
What blanked his mind even more was the next moment—Lan Yan slowly arched her waist, pressing him against the spot whose clear saltiness he had just tasted on his fingertips.
All of this happened under her gaze fixed on his eyes.
“Where is it?” he heard her ask softly.
“…Hm?”
“…Here?” Lan Yan lifted her hand toward the pocket of his shorts.
He didn’t stop her. In fact, his brain seemed incapable of rational thought anymore.
The square, flat box was taken out and its transparent plastic seal torn open. His breathing grew even more disordered as he stared at her extracting a square aluminum foil packet.
His arm was grabbed, and the serrated foil was stuffed into his palm. She turned her head away, as if unable to bear it, and lifted her arm to cover her face.
She was always like this—dangling just a little bait, and he would bite without regard for his life.
When Liang Jingchuan braced his arms on either side of her body, his breathing was already ragged.
“Yanyan.”
Lan Yan opened her eyes and peered at Liang Jingchuan through the gap. He was looking down at her. The lamplight cast the shadow of his long eyelashes onto the cold-jade-like skin beneath his eyelids. His eyes were as deep as abyssal pools, stirring the heart with a single glance.
“Look at me, Yanyan.”
Lan Yan’s heart skipped a beat. As if compelled, she moved her arm away from blocking her view. Shadows fell as he lowered his head to kiss her lips, while pressing down his waist and abdomen.
Her breath hitched. She knew she was wet enough, but swallowing him was still much harder than expected.
Liang Jingchuan’s scalp tingled, thin sweat beading on his forehead. In his blurred vision, Lan Yan bit her lip and lifted her hands. Her palms pressed against his lower back, gently pushing downward.
His last shred of caution vanished in an instant.
Lan Yan’s breathing trembled. From their first kiss tonight, the dark emptiness that had been growing was finally released.
The air turned into dense solid, compressing her breaths. This tangible confirmation made her chest ache, yet it also produced an incredulous daze.
Liang Jingchuan made no further moves. He suddenly lowered his head, burying his face in the crook of her neck.
Moist breaths lingered by her ear. Lan Yan turned her head in surprise and saw his eyelashes damp, his eyes deep black.
“Am I dreaming, Yanyan?”
It was still this sentence.
Lan Yan’s heart melted into a puddle. She lifted her hand to cup his cheek. “…Have you dreamed of this?”
Liang Jingchuan shook his head.
“Then you know it’s not.”
Lan Yan wrapped her arms around him, her palms pressing against his shoulder blades. She wanted him to move. If he couldn’t tell dream from reality, then she would confirm it herself.
Words wouldn’t come out, so she pulled back slightly, then took him in fully again.
Liang Jingchuan clenched his teeth, veins faintly visible on the side of his neck. He propped himself up on his elbows and gazed deeply into her eyes.
The stagnant air began to flow, surging like rapids in an instant.
Lan Yan averted her gaze, her fingers digging tightly into the firm flesh of Liang Jingchuan’s shoulders.
The world continued to blur in Liang Jingchuan’s eyes. He forced them open, trying to see Lan Yan more clearly, but it only grew whiter and mistier.
Restraint crumbled inch by inch. His thoughts shot up like an elevator to the clouds. The speed was so fast that soon, the dazzling white light above the clouds pierced his eyes.
All motion and sound abruptly froze.
Space still spun. Liang Jingchuan’s vision slowly refocused, seeing a startled expression frozen on Lan Yan’s face.
His first reaction was to cover her mouth. “…Don’t laugh.”
“…Okay.”
But warm laughter still leaked out from under his palm. He removed his hand and sealed her mouth with a kiss. She pinched his flushed earlobe. “It’s fine… mm…” She kept laughing, her shoulders shaking.
Liang Jingchuan bit her lip. “…No more laughing.”
Of course she wouldn’t listen. After resisting each other for so many years, this chance to thoroughly defeat him was simply one in a million.
□□
“Stop laughing, Yanyan, or don’t blame me for not warning you.”
“I’m so scared…” Lan Yan’s voice cut off abruptly, replaced by a stifled grunt she could barely endure.
“…Can you give some warning?” she said, slightly annoyed.
“Didn’t I?” Liang Jingchuan smiled.
“…” Lan Yan couldn’t speak, because she felt Liang Jingchuan’s hand pressing against her flat abdomen.
“Look, Yanyan.” At the faint outline bulging out.
“…”
Lan Yan did regret mocking him so harshly. It had ignited his competitive spirit, overriding his novice shyness and caution.
Perhaps he hadn’t intended to prove himself, but the result was the same.
Lan Yan’s breaths scattered like beads off a broken string. Sticky, broken whimpers escaped her throat uncontrollably, even though it was all brute force without skill.
Fortunately, Liang Jingchuan didn’t mock her in return. He just rested his forehead on her shoulder, focused and immersed, beads of sweat forming on his nose tip and rubbing against the skin below her collarbone.
He always had this extraordinary persistence and single-minded devotion when it came to making her feel pleasure, no matter the level.
Lan Yan bent her knees and began to cooperate. She felt the physiological intoxication being pushed higher and higher. Perhaps because she liked him so much psychologically, she thought she could do it—as long as he just…
“Liang Jingchuan…”
“Hm?”
She pressed against his ear and whispered her need. He answered directly by speeding up.
Under the dim yellow light, everything felt like a bizarre, psychedelic dream at the witching hour.
Otherwise, how could hot mist envelop her eyes, ceaseless water sounds fill her ears, her solid body feel completely dissolved, all other thoughts scatter, leaving only the animalistic instinct at their connection pointing straight to reproduction.
How could she make sounds that even she found unfamiliar and frivolously wanton.
But Liang Jingchuan loved her voice like that. It sounded and tasted like melted mint candy.
□□
He immediately wrapped his arms tightly around her, resonating with her spasms while abandoning his last thread of rational clarity.
Lan Yan’s mind hadn’t yet returned when her face was suddenly turned toward him. He lowered his head and kissed her urgently. Her still-weak arms lifted to hug his shoulders and back, accepting his final release.
In moments, the world abruptly stilled in primordial chaos.
It felt like dying and being reborn.
Hearts still pounded wildly, but Liang Jingchuan quickly dealt with the thing and returned to her side, kissing her tenderly again—like a warm comfort in the trenches after a fierce battle.
“…Yanyan.”
“Hm?”
It seemed he just wanted to call her name, with no other intentions.
Lan Yan understood his mood. She lightly combed his slightly sweat-damp black hair with her fingers and whispered, “…I like it.”
“Like what?”
“You… I like everything about you.”
She heard Liang Jingchuan chuckle softly. She decided that if he said anything mood-ruining, she’d kick him off the bed. Fortunately, he didn’t.
The air’s heat cooled slightly, sweat on their skin slowly evaporating into a bit of coolness.
Liang Jingchuan pulled the blanket over them, still holding her in his arms, as if he couldn’t bear to let go for even a second.
“Want to wash up, Yanyan?”
Lan Yan curled up in Liang Jingchuan’s arms, still soaking in the afterglow’s warm water, too lazy to move. “…Later, together.”
“…Huh?”
“Not with you—meaning… next time together?”
Liang Jingchuan laughed deeply. “Together with the next round?”
His arm was around her chest. Lan Yan opened her mouth and bit his wrist.
It wasn’t hard, but Liang Jingchuan played along with a feigned cry of pain. She laughed. “Childish.”
“If you want to go together, I’m not opposed.” Liang Jingchuan said.
“Then let’s go.”
“Let’s.” He made to pick her up.
Lan Yan froze instead.
“What, scared now?” Liang Jingchuan chuckled low.
“…”
He seemed to have gotten thicker-skinned. Lan Yan had a bad premonition.
Liang Jingchuan kissed her forehead. “Are you wondering why the same trick doesn’t work anymore?”
“…Don’t get cocky.”
In this sticky, nonsensical pillow talk, they felt immersed in syrup. The excessive sweetness seemed to erode their will—otherwise, why did she want to do nothing but cling to him in his arms, chattering endlessly like this.
She realized she had become a different person.
“Want some water?” Liang Jingchuan asked.
“Mm.”
Liang Jingchuan propped himself up, grabbed the teabottle from the bedside table, unscrewed it, and handed it to her.
She sat up a bit and drank half of it, then passed it to Liang Jingchuan. He tilted his head back and took a few sips.
“Didn’t you say it tastes bad?” Lan Yan eyed him.
“You’re hard to chase too. Did that stop me?”
“…” Lan Yan was a bit speechless but also wanted to laugh.
They lay back down and started kissing again at some point, as if they could never tire of it.
Liang Jingchuan’s fingers measured every inch of her skin, patiently kindling flames.
“Yanyan…”
Lan Yan lifted her eyelids slightly.
“When did you start liking me?” Liang Jingchuan whispered in her ear.
“…Don’t know.”
“Don’t know…?” His fingertip rubbed slowly and patiently, like the finest brush dipped in black ink, painting a camellia in meticulous gongbi style—delicate outlines, layered washes. If she didn’t answer, he wouldn’t go further.
Lan Yan bit her lip and twisted away. Naturally, Liang Jingchuan wouldn’t allow it.
She had long known he was talented, quick to learn anything. Now that he was preliminarily satisfied, he had all the patience to crack the code that would make her reveal the truth.
“Know now?” he chuckled lowly.
Lan Yan didn’t want to let him gloat, but the emptiness fogged over her like a thick mist. She turned her face away, her voice mosquito-like: “…That Christmas Eve, when I saw you.”
“Why?”
“…”
Liang Jingchuan asked again. Her eyelids trembled before she answered: “…I wanted to see you more than I thought.”
Liang Jingchuan seemed moved. He lowered his head, kissed her pretty eyes misted with moisture, then her lip corner.
He watched her reactions closely. When she involuntarily curled her limbs, he asked: “Here?”
“…Don’t do this.”
“How?”
“…You’re such a pervert.”
“Don’t like it?”
She fell silent again.
“Then you do.”
Lan Yan couldn’t say a word. The air burned continuously, depleting the scant oxygen. She turned her face to dodge his gaze. Soon, she heard faint rustling. Curious, but she didn’t look right away.
Until her knees were parted. She startled her eyes open, seeing only Liang Jingchuan’s thick black hair atop his head and his high nose bridge. The rest hid in shadow, including his breaths and voice.
Lan Yan hurriedly pushed, but her hand was caught and placed on his shoulder—as if to say, that’s where it belongs.
She had no choice but to retreat, but her waist was firmly gripped by Liang Jingchuan’s palm.
“…Why so scared?” His voice seemed to come from the dark depths of water.
“No…”
“Sure. Yanyan, anything is fine…” His voice trailed off, swallowed by himself.
She leaned halfway back against the headboard, with nowhere left to retreat. Her palm rested on his shoulder, utterly at a loss. Every time she thought he already liked her enough, he would show her that he could like her even more.
Like her enough to do anything for her.
He was extremely inexperienced, but she was much the same when it came to this. She did not know if what she could not endure was this novel sensation that made her spine tingle, or the submissive affection in his eyes at that moment.
“Liang Jingchuan…” Lan Yan felt like she was about to cry.
He hummed through his nose in acknowledgment.
“I don’t want it right now… I just want you to hold me.”
Liang Jingchuan paused his movements and quickly returned to her side. She fell completely into his embrace, like a drifting breeze coming to rest amid lush branches.
She wiped the lingering moisture from the corner of his lips with her fingertip, then kissed him without hesitation.
Like fire meeting wind, they soon returned to that gilded dream, surrendering restraint to instinct and reserve to affection.
It lasted a long time, like a boat adrift on the waves, refusing to come to shore, until an even more intense ecstasy descended upon them.
Their breathing took a long time to steady, along with the aftershocks of their hearts, like a night rain that fell for ages before stopping.
The two of them were like fallen leaves, overlapping as they landed in a thin, glistening puddle on the ground, reflecting the stolen blue light of the sky after the rain.
Leaves could lie still without moving or thinking, rotting away in the mud without a care.
Liang Jingchuan lightly pecked at her earlobe and asked if she wanted to take a bath. She had no strength to respond and merely blinked lazily.
He fell silent then, draping his arm over her back. Her skin had cooled from the evaporating sweat, so he pulled up the tangled blanket to cover them.
Lan Yan felt like she was about to fall asleep when she suddenly opened her eyes. “…So annoying.”
Liang Jingchuan chuckled. “I can carry you there.”
“…I hate winter so much. It’s definitely freezing outside.”
“Come to my place next time.”
“…There won’t be a next time.”
Liang Jingchuan took all her irritable trash talk in stride with a smile. He pushed himself up on one arm, and Lan Yan immediately lifted her head. “…Where are you going?”
“To turn on the hot water first.”
Lan Yan did not look away as Liang Jingchuan got dressed.
As he was about to pull down his T-shirt, he glanced at her, reached out, grabbed her hand, and pressed it against his abs.
…Damn it, how did he always know exactly what she wanted?
Liang Jingchuan laughed, making her ears burn red.
Lan Yan lay there lazily for a while longer until she heard footsteps returning. Her wrist was caught, and she was pulled upright. A bathrobe was draped over her, wrapping her up snugly.
He had probably already washed up; a fresh watery scent clung to him.
Just as he was about to pick her up, Lan Yan pushed at him, got down from the bed herself, slipped on her slippers, took two steps toward the door, then turned back. “Don’t follow me.”
In the bathroom, the hot air and water had already driven away the chill. Lan Yan pinned up her hair and took a hot shower.
When she returned to the bedroom, she saw Liang Jingchuan leaning against the headboard, replying to WeChat messages. The phone’s backlight illuminated his face.
She had no idea why, after having done the most intimate things, she only felt embarrassed now.
“…What time is it?”
“Twelve.”
“I’m going to sleep. I have to follow Master to restore paintings tomorrow.”
“Okay.”
Lan Yan found her pajamas under the blanket; they had inadvertently served as padding earlier, sparing the bedsheet from disaster.
She bundled up the scattered clothes and tossed them into the laundry hamper, then opened the wardrobe and pulled out a clean set.
As she untied the bathrobe sash, she glanced back. “Close your eyes.”
Liang Jingchuan glanced over, immediately wearing an amused half-smile. “It’s not like I haven’t…”
“Close them.”
Liang Jingchuan shrugged and complied.
Lan Yan watched him for a dozen seconds. His eyes stayed obediently shut the whole time.
She suddenly changed her mind.
Liang Jingchuan heard rustling sounds and wanted to open his eyes but held back.
He felt Lan Yan crawl over from the edge of the bed and straddle his lap, knees on either side.
“…You can open them now.”
Liang Jingchuan slowly lifted his eyelids.
The bathrobe still hung from her shoulders, but the front was undone. The dim yellow lamplight seemed to glaze her skin with a lustrous sheen.
Liang Jingchuan’s gaze darkened, and he fell silent for a moment. “…Even if you’re rewarding me, I wouldn’t dare accept it.”
Lan Yan looked at him.
Liang Jingchuan averted his eyes. “…One box has three.”
They were used up.
“…Do you lack the money for that?”
“Lack experience.”
“…”
Liang Jingchuan smiled and reached out to cover her bathrobe. “Time to sleep, Yanyan. I’m already satisfied.”
“…That’s not what it says.”
“I said this isn’t something I can control.”
Lan Yan shifted forward a bit. Liang Jingchuan had no idea what she was thinking, but her cheeks began to flush. Then, without hesitation, she reached out.
Liang Jingchuan raised his hand to grab her wrist, but she easily slipped free—perhaps because he did not truly want to stop her.
The moment it sprang free, Lan Yan was still startled by the sight from this angle.
She kept her eyes down, not daring to meet Liang Jingchuan’s gaze. Clearly, he had no such intention either; he turned his head aside, lips pressed tight, Adam’s apple bobbing as heat slowly crept up his fair skin.
The process was a bit torturous for Liang Jingchuan because she was utterly clueless about it.
It was hard to imagine that these hands could be so deft and nimble when restoring paintings.
After persisting for a while, Lan Yan looked up at Liang Jingchuan beseechingly.
He sighed, reached out, and enveloped her hand with his.
“…Do you want to sleep sooner or later?” he asked.
“Can I decide that myself?”
“…”
“Whatever you want,” she said.
“You’ll get tired if it’s up to me.”
“…” Lan Yan fell silent.
Liang Jingchuan sat up straight and leaned in, parting the front of her bathrobe again—as if he still could not restrain himself, wanting his breath to sink into that lustrous, glowing glaze.
It lasted neither too long nor too short. In the final moment, Liang Jingchuan could have let go of her hand but deliberately did not, wanting to stain her slender white fingers with that tainted stickiness.
There was a box of tissues on the nightstand. Liang Jingchuan pulled out several sheets.
Then he got up, went to the bathroom, and returned with wet wipes from the dining table as well.
Lan Yan had already changed into her clothes—a beige cotton pajama set. She still sat there, the heat in her earlobes not yet faded.
Liang Jingchuan sat beside her, took her hand, and meticulously wiped it again with a wet wipe.
Finally, he lowered his head and kissed her fingertips tenderly and solemnly.
She shivered as if electrified.
The bedside lamp clicked off, and the world outside the window grew quiet.
They consciously avoided any contact that might spark something, simply cuddling together like small animals.
“Liang Jingchuan.”
“Hm?”
“Is liking me really that hard?”
“Not anymore.”